The Effects of Peer Monitoring Training on the Emergence of the Capability to Learn from Observing Instruction Received by Peers

Abstract

We tested the effects of teaching peer monitoring on the emergence of an observational learning (OL)

Teaching children with autism to discriminate the reinforced and nonreinforced responses of others: Implications for observational learning

“…Observational learning has been defined as the learning of new responses that occurs as a result of observing the responding of a model and the consequences that this responding produces (Catania, 1998). The potential benefits of observational learning cannot be understated; if one can learn by observing the responses of others, it may reduce instruction time, maximize learning opportunities in mainstream learning environments, and permit the acquisition of novel information without explicit instruction (Delgado & Greer, 2009;. As several researchers have noted, however, observational learning may require some specific prerequisite skills, such as attention to a model, generalized imitation, and the demonstration of complex discriminations (Deguchi, 1984;Greer et al, 2006;Masia & Chase, 1997).…”

“…Two recent studies have attempted to isolate component responses related to observational learning and to determine the effects of learning these responses on the emergence of new responses during observational learning sessions (Delgado & Greer, 2009;Taylor, DeQuinzio, & Stine, 2012). evaluated a procedure for teaching children with autism to learn new sight words by watching a peer engage in an instructional interaction with a teacher.…”

“…Observational learning, the authors acknowledged, involves more than simply attending to and imitating the correct responses of peers. Delgado and Greer (2009) evaluated an intervention that taught children with autism to learn new sight words by monitoring both correct and incorrect responses of peers. In this study, monitoring consisted of counting the correct and incorrect responses of peers as indicated by teacher feedback to the peer.…”

“…However promising these studies may have been, their results have yet to be replicated or expanded, and the research literature still lacks more rigorous examinations of the component responses associated with observational learning. With the preliminary results of Delgado and Greer (2009) in mind, we wondered if children with autism could learn to discriminate between the contingencies applied to a model by engaging in responses directly related to the instructional process. Rather than training participants to demonstrate discrimination of contingencies with red or green blocks, we wanted participants to demonstrate that discrimination of contingencies had occurred by imitating those responses of a model that were followed by reinforcement and not to imitate modeled responses that were not followed by reinforcement and to instead use an alternative response ("I don't know").…”

Psychophysiological analysis of a pedagogical agent and robotic peer for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

“…VL involves observing and imitating a model but also, importantly, requires simple and complex discriminations among consequences received by the model [61,230,233,239,252,264,265,[272][273][274]. Twenty-one studies reviewed in [230] concluded that some children with ASD appear to be deficient in imitative skills.…”